State police said firefighters, police and paramedics responded to a report of a plane crash at a private grass airfield on state Route 12 in Clayton at 11:45 a.m. They found a Piper Aztec engulfed in flames. The pilot, Steven Ritchie, 52, of Clayton, was out of the wreckage suffering only a minor injury to his hand.

Ritchie told police he was preparing to land at the airfield when a gust of wind tilted up the planes right wing, forcing the left wing into the ground. “The plane spun counterclockwise on the ground,” police reported, “and immediately caught fire.”

Ritchie was able to break out a window and escape from the plane, which was destroyed by fire.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were alerted, police said.